The Whites Of Their Eyes

 

This post's title takes its lead from a directive that dates all the way back to the 15th century and the Swedish general-king Gustavus Adolphus, regarded as one of the greatest military commanders in modern history, who gave standing orders to his musketeers "never to give fire, till they could see their own image in the pupil of their enemy's eye." That instruction would trickle down to other military leaders who would paraphrase it, but it became famous for Americans during the battle of Bunker Hill, fought during the siege of Boston in 1775: "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes," the meaning of which was thought to be two-fold: Hold fire until the moment when it would have the greatest effect, and don't waste your ammunition--which essentially boiled down to "Make each shot count." The order was thought to be attributed to one of four men: Col. William Prescott, Maj. Gen. John Stark, Maj. Israel Putnam, or Capt. Richard Gridley (though the other three could also have repeated it during the battle after it was first spoken).

As to how this could possibly apply to comics reading, you may already have made the connection. Depending on the artist, there were times in a story when one never knew when--or why--a character's eyes would simply... disappear, to be replaced with two empty slits of (usually) white. Ninety-eight percent of the time it would occur for those characters who wore a mask, which looks really strange when you line up other people beside them who aren't so afflicted:

 
Sometimes the effect goes back and forth, for no particular reason:

(Cap would also have his own now-you-see-them, now-you-don't moments.)

But there are characters who spend the bulk of their panel time with eye slits instead of actual eyes--for example, Ms. Marvel, Storm, and, of all people, Wolverine, a character whose emotionally-charged facial expressions would make for intense drama, if only his eyes could convey it.

 
Especially when you consider that the artist who drew this (presumably) bloody scene:

 
...was also the artist who drew this panel:

 
Masked characters such as Iron Man, of course, get a pass, since it would make sense not to be able to delineate Tony Stark's eyes given that his helmet has no illumination inside it and we have only rare occasion to view the man's expression.

Spider-Man, naturally, has the luxury of operating with white eye slits, by design:

Though exceptions have been made for both himself and Wolverine, mostly because realistically there was no other option.

The Inhumans also haven't been exempt from eyeslit-itis. Like another secluded race, the Eternals, none of the Inhumans really need to wear masks at all--but those who do, such as Karnak, Medusa, and Black Bolt, often reflect blank eyes.

 
(Look how odd Black Bolt and Karnak's eyes appear on that FF cover, as if touched up after the fact.)

 
In an issue of The Avengers from 1972, even the shaded eye sockets of the Vision mysteriously joined this club (pictured here with his normal appearance):

Strangely enough, the Scarlet Witch was left untouched by this trend, though, as was the case with Storm when invoking her power, Wanda might have also made a powerful impression visually had she been given the same treatment--like so:

The Sub-Mariner escaped the slits that at times were applied to Captain America, probably because Namor didn't sport a mask--but artists like Sal Buscema couldn't resist tampering with his look anyway, resulting in a squint which Yellowjacket, in particular, made a mockery of.

Buscema also tried the same approach with Thor, though it appears that he also experimented with the Thunder God doubling for the Vision.

And there were other variations with eye appearance. As we've already seen, artist John Byrne originally fashioned Cyclops with red eyes always appearing behind his visor, though eventually a solid red line of brightness replaced the look.

 
So why not make use of the "Bunker Hill technique" in other instances?

 
Maybe because there are times when you should just hold your fire.